Wanted to share a little Bible lesson and devotion with you today.
When the Apostle Paul was in Corinth in Acts 18, he created quite the controversy among the Jews there. In fact, they became so outraged at him, Paul was dragged in front of a non-religious court in an attempt to silence him for good.
Things did NOT go as planned. After the Jewish leadership presented their case, but before Paul could say a single word, the court official declared the verdict. Since this whole case was based on nothing more than words and names in the Jews’ own law, this was not a matter for discussion – Paul could keep on preaching.
The Jews were furious! In their outrage, they took their own synagogue leader, named Sosthenes, and beat the fire out of him right there in front of the court. They whooped the snot out of their own Jewish synagogue leader because the court didn’t find in their favor regarding Paul!
We don’t know much about Sosthenes – other than he was a leader of the Jews in Corinth. But, he is mentioned in the Bible one more time. And that “one more time” is what makes Sosthenes special to me.
Years after Sosthenes was beaten by his own synagogue in Corinth after taking Paul to court, Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in that city. The first sentence of 1 Corinthians starts out this way:
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth …”
Wow. I love that.